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The UK’s deputy prime minister said an investigation into a previous complaint against Chris Pincher did not recommend “formal disciplinary action”, as a former senior civil servant accused the government of dishonesty.

Pincher, who oversaw party discipline and welfare within the Conservative party, resigned from his role last week following allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

However, the deputy prime minister on Tuesday acknowledged there had been a previous accusation of professional misconduct against Pincher.

“There was a complaint made by someone that worked with him [in the Foreign Office] about inappropriate behaviour,” Dominic Raab told Sky News.

Raab said he agreed the complaint “ought to be reviewed under the civil services auspices, to make sure it was done without fear or favour”. 

The review “did not recommend formal disciplinary action”, he added. However, Raab said he spoke to “Pincher about the inappropriate behaviour and made it clear in no uncertain terms [that] it should desist — it must never be repeated”.

Raab said the matter was also referred to the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team for “additional assurance”. The team found that the issue did not warrant further action under the ministerial code.

The news came as Lord Simon McDonald, former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, wrote on Tuesday that Pincher was subject to a formal investigation while a minister in the department in 2019 and that prime minister Boris Johnson was told about it.

In a letter to the parliamentary standards commissioner, McDonald said Number 10’s original claim that Johnson was unaware of “specific allegations” about Pincher’s behaviour was “not true”.